If things had worked out a little differently for Mark McGrath, he may have been known for his hockey skills than his music.
Though he's famous as the singer for Southern California rock-pop band Sugar Ray, McGrath was born in Hartford and lived in Simsbury and Avon before his family headed west when he was 8.
"I was well into my hockey career," McGrath said in a recent phone interview from his California home. "I had played three years at that point and when I came out here, I was like (Wayne) Gretzky. I couldn't find any kids to play with me, so I switched to basketball and skateboarding and surfing.
Article continues below this ad
"I remember going to Whalers games back in the day with the Howe brothers and Gordie Howe. It was incredible and I was so into hockey, so it was such a drag when I gave it up after coming to California.
"But it was a two-hour drive (to the practice rink) every day and the competition wasn't that good and my dad was like, `It might be time to hang up the skates.' "
The hockey world's loss was the music world's gain as McGrath and Sugar Ray went on to release million-selling albums and chart-topping singles in the late 1990s, such as "Fly," "Every Morning" and "Someday."
Article continues below this ad
Sugar Ray's time at the top didn't last, however, and the band members took on other projects between the occasional reunion tour or recording project. McGrath turned to television work, most notably as a host on "Extra" for four years.
McGrath is not bitter about Sugar Ray's slide out of the limelight, taking a realistic approach to the difficulties in sustaining such a run of success in the music industry.
"The band hit its peak in the late '90s, and after our last album didn't really blow out the charts, the writing was kind of on the wall for bands like us," he said. "Not every band can sustain a career like Aerosmith or The Rolling Stones or The Eagles. I wish we all could, but it's difficult to make music your full-time career, even after all of the success we had."
Article continues below this ad
This summer, Sugar Ray and other bands from the 1990s -- Everclear, Gin Blossoms, Lit and Marcy Playground -- have embarked on the Summerland Tour, which will come to the Mohegan Sun Arena on Sunday, July 29.
The idea was hatched by McGrath and Everclear leader Art Alexakis.
"The thinking Art and I had was, `Let's have a tour of music from the '90s, because nobody's done that yet,' " McGrath said. "We're not reinventing the wheel. The '60s have their tours, the '70s have theirs, and there are some from the '80s. But there hasn't been that galvanized '90s tour yet, and I think that's because there really isn't that nostalgia associated with the '90s yet.
"We had been talking about it for a few years and we finally said, `Let's do it.' At the very least, we'll have a night of great music. There will be 25 hits for $25, so that's not a bad evening."
Article continues below this ad
McGrath is happy that Sugar Ray will be back playing arena shows, even though he knows that it couldn't do it without being part of a package tour.
"I love playing these great venues, and these songs deserve these venues, because they mean so much to so many people and they mean a lot to us," he said. "We're going to celebrate these songs in these beautiful venues that, let's be honest, our bands individually couldn't touch with a 10-foot pole these days. I feel very honored and blessed to be doing this again."
With no TV projects active, McGrath is getting the itch to turn his attention back to his music career, although he knows it is a much different business than it was in the '90s.
"One thing that this tour has done for me is inspired me to write again," he said. "Whether it comes out as a Sugar Ray record or a Mark McGrath solo record, I don't know. I know there isn't this incredible demand for a Mark McGrath solo record; I understand that.
Article continues below this ad
"I still envision that I can write a song that gets on the radio. We certainly have channels to do that if I come up with a song, so that kind of excites me. I know there's not going to be a million-selling Mark McGrath solo record, but when you're in a band you do two things -- you play live and you write music.
"I love performing music and it's what I would love to do for the rest of my life. The ancillary things I've done -- go on TV, do a radio show -- they're things that I've explored and they've been offered to me because of the band."
sspillane@ctpost.com; 203-330-6355
Article continues below this ad
Mohegan Sun Arena, 1 Mohegan Sun Blvd., Uncasville. Sunday, July 29, 7 p.m. $25. 800-745-3000, www.ticketmaster.com
RetroSearch is an open source project built by @garambo | Open a GitHub Issue
Search and Browse the WWW like it's 1997 | Search results from DuckDuckGo
HTML:
3.2
| Encoding:
UTF-8
| Version:
0.7.4